Best Overall Camera Under $500 Today?

On Sun, 24 Jun 2007 20:16:27 GMT, King Sardon wrote:

a. May not return, or
b. May already have bought a camera.

He didn't give much notice, did he?

Anyway, what if he said he's going on safari and wants to take
pictures of lions? Would you recommend this newbie get a 30D with a
500mm lens?

What about it? Why are you have a need to recommend something,
anything, before finding out more about what the newbie's needs
actually are?


What if he said he always wanted to take sports pix? Would you tell
him to buy the Mark III?

Or if he wanted to do portraits? You would sugest the full frame with
the 85mm/f1.8??

Just because it's the right tool does not mean it's appropriate for a
newbie. Take off your pro hat and think like a beginner again.

You've jumped to a silly conclusion. You seem to think that I'm
trying to recommend something better than the A710. If you re-read
what I actually said :

the 'best' camera could be one that easily fits in a shirt pocket, a
medium sized P&S with a hotshoe or even a used Rebel XT.

it's quite hard to conclude that I was trying to push a 30D with
500mm lens, a Mark III, or a 85mm f/1.8 lens. In fact, given what
little we know so far about the OP, an A710 might be overkill.


The A710 is what I'd recommend right now to any newbie or his mother.

Thus proving that what I initially said is correct, that most
people here will recommend what they personally prefer, without
considering what might be most appropriate for the person looking
for their own 'best' camera. There have been several people in this
newsgroup that bought an A710, mainly because of the IS, but
exchanged them for other cameras, such as one of the A6x0 series,
because the image quality of the A710 wasn't that great . Your
mother might need the IS, but a newbie might not.

And lo, King Sardon emerged from the ether
and spake thus:
On Sat, 23 Jun 2007 13:51:39 -0400, ASAAR wrote:

If you think that my response was in any way sneering, then you
may be the one suffering from cluelessness. If anything, I was
trying to help the "newbie" to understand why some of the replies
might not be very helpful to *him*, because at this point it's
impossible for anyone to recommend any camera that would really suit
him. The best they could do would be to recommend several different
types, pointing out strengths and weaknesses, as well as which types
of cameras would be better for some types of photography, and which
types would be better for others. There was one very brief reply of
this type (repeated), but others, only one of which could possibly
have been the right answer, and only with a lot of luck and
serendipity :

Yeah yeah.... yadda yadda....

Just buy the A710 or the SD800.

Newbies don't know what camera they want because they have no
photographic experience. You don't get that from newsgroup responses.
You get it from shooting. And you need a camera to do shooting. So
just get one of those....

How far wrong could the guy go???

KS

Well I can say with some certainty what camera he *shouldn't* buy with
less than $500. The Nikon S6, for example; what a piece of rubbish. I
regret spending the $250 entire dollars it cost. Despite having Wi-Fi,
a gigantic and beautiful LCD screen, and immense portability, it's
slow as hell, grainy in anything less than full daylight, incapable of
taking non-flash photos without blur from camera shake, and even with
the flash *on* it only focuses correctly about 75% of the time. I
wanted a "party camera" and although it beats carrying a 5D around, it
frustrates me so much I'd almost rather not bother.

So keep that in mind if any of you were thinking about getting started
with a Nikon P&S. The SD800 will far, far outshine the S6.

--
Aaron
http://www.fisheyegallery.com
http://www.singleservingphoto.com